01 May 2024
BreathEazy
Job Title
From feline asthma to canine chronic bronchitis, respiratory disease is relatively common. These conditions not only compromise patient well-being and quality of life but can also present challenges when it comes to diagnosis and management.
To help you stay up to date with the latest advancements in respiratory medicine, BreathEazy, in partnership with Trudell Animal Health, has launched the Respiratory Educator Masterclass.
Learn all you need to know about feline asthma, canine chronic bronchitis and more, including:
With streams tailored for both veterinary surgeons and veterinary nurses, the webinar-based masterclass is available on-demand, with assessment by an end of course quiz.
The course covers all aspects of respiratory case management, for both infectious and non-infectious disease, including the use of inhaled therapies.
Administering medication by inhalation enables the targeted delivery of pharmaceutical agents to the lungs and lower airways, with far fewer of the endocrine or immune side effects associated with systemic medication. This has revolutionised the management of feline asthma.
Dr Gonzalez also highlights the ease of administering inhaled medication, with most cat owners finding it more straightforward than giving tablets. He goes on to explain the benefits of being able to prescribe bronchodilators to manage flare-ups of feline asthma at home.
While inhaled therapies are a mainstay of the management of feline asthma, they may be somewhat underutilised in canine respiratory patients. With that in mind, several recent studies have explored the use of inhaled steroids in the management of respiratory disease in dogs, for conditions like canine chronic bronchitis, inflammatory airway disease and tracheal collapse.
Chan and Johnson (2023)1 evaluated the efficacy of inhaled steroids, specifically fluticasone propionate, administered via the AeroDawg® Chamber (Figure 1) in dogs with a chronic cough due to inflammatory airway disease or airway collapse. These disorders often occur concurrently, when progressive mechanical and inflammatory insults to the lower airways can perpetuate the cough cycle.
The study, involving 32 client-owned dogs at a veterinary teaching hospital, revealed significant improvements in quality of life, together with reduced cough frequency, severity and duration, in the fluticasone treated dogs. Furthermore, owners found the administration of aerosolised medication straightforward and increasingly easy with ongoing use.
Figure 1. The AeroDawg® Chamber in use
In another 2023 study which focused on tracheal collapse, clinicians compared the use of inhaled fluticasone to oral prednisone in thirty dogs with a chronic cough due to the condition2.
While inhaled corticosteroids are a standard treatment modality for similar conditions in human patients, their use in dogs is less common. Both treatment groups exhibited clinical improvement, with significantly greater improvements by the end of the study in the fluticasone group.
The study demonstrated that inhaled fluticasone effectively controls tracheal collapse-associated coughing, with a far lower incidence of side effects compared to oral prednisolone.
Both studies highlight the potential benefits of inhaled therapies in the management of canine respiratory disease.
When considering inhaled medication in feline or canine respiratory patients, the choice of spacer is critical to ensure treatment success and good clinical outcomes.
While lower-cost spacers, often designed for human paediatric use, might seem appealing to owners, they usually result in poorer control of clinical signs and increased medication costs due to wastage.
Poor control of signs due to unsuitable spacers may also lead to prolonged reliance on systemic medication, increasing the risk of side effects and associated co-morbidities.
Figure 2. The AeroKat® Chamber is designed specifically for cats
For more information on the AeroKat® or the AeroDawg® and the management of respiratory disease in cats, dogs and horses, visit www.breatheazy.co.uk or email [email protected]
